(FSX) Street/Road Lights - Day/Night Lighting query (newbie)
Hi all - new poster here and I think this where I'm supposed to be looking, as I have a query regarding effects (lights) files (long post alert folks!).
Let me state, from the start, that I am a newbie to this so explanations full of jargon are more than likely to pass me by or be replied with "I don't understand!!" or simply "Eh..?" Sorry!! However, here goes...
I've been dabbling with simple custom scenery for FSX (Gold/Acceleration edition) for a short while, using GMax. I have, more or less, got a handle on relatively simple buildings/other structures. As many other have found, I've also started to use Model Converter X and Library Creator XML to produce my own scenery object libraries. For placement I use Instant Scenery 3.
For a while now, I've been itching to have a crack at street lights (with a view to adding custom light effects elsewhere but that matters not for now), so I've had a bash at a simple street light. After a lot of reading around online, the SDK literature, the various Wikis and so on, I'm really none the wiser. There seems to be a lot of conflicting advice, advice aimed at top end experts, which mean nothing, or threads which simply die off. Despite this, I managed to extract some bits I understood and that includes the Attach Tool in Gmax. After a couple of failed starts, I managed to get a light effect to stick to lamp post, save/export as an MDL file. I used Model Converter to take care of the BMP to DDS conversion and then create a library with Library Creator XML. After doing the necessaries of registering the library in FSX by adding it to the active scenery library list, IS3 duly recognises it and lo-and-behold, I can drop an illuminated street light into my scenery and it's still lit with a nice glow around it!! Startled by its (and my own) brilliance (and with due deference to multitude of FS forums I've read and somehow digested), I even braved it, did a little more reading and managed to alter the colour, so now it's classic British street light sodium orange (almost)!
These are just the working prototypes, so are a little raggy round the edges. The red box is due to IS3 being active.
So far so good. Only issue is, it's on all day! So to start with, I'd like to turn the thing off during daylight hours. So far, I understand that I need, somewhere to insert the Day=0,Night=1 effectParams command BUT where? This is where things come unstuck and the web advice becomes confused or just complicated.
I have no idea HOW to create an XML file which is apparently needed, let alone where I would keep it and then what to do with it! It seems I might need to create a control file? I have found these in the FSX/Effects folder (cntrl_*.fx but having looked at one, can;t fathom how it relates to an XML file or the fx file I want to control)I copied the stock FSX effect I wanted, adjusted the light colour, renamed it, placed it BACK into the FSX Effects folder and so on - that much works fine. However, I can't see where the XML files which controls these are kept and I can't discover, in a simple way, how to translate the XML file into an effect file I can use to attach to models in GMax. Having seen examples of XML files, it seems I have to specify lat/long among other things. This isn't what I want to do - is it necessary? All I need is a simple way of telling a light effect when it needs to be 'illuminated' that's all and an effect which I can attach to a Gmax scenery MDL, so I can, as stated, create my own various kinds of lamp post/street lights, create a library of them and drop into FSX as and where necessary.
I've discovered that although, via the Gmax Attach Tool, there is a box add effect parameters, that doesn't seem to work. I've tried adding DAY=0,NIGHT=1 in upper and lower case writing, adding them individually (just DAY or just NIGHT) and even DAY=YES etc. Adding " " quotations marks certainly doesn't work - GMax flags an error message stating the " " as code it can't recognise. I also looked at the Effects Tool itself in FSX and again, there are no DAY/NIGHT options there, so it's pointless, as some suggest, making my own effect there (I really wouldn't know where to start anyway).
In advance of any likely replies - HELP!!!! IT's driving me round the bend!! I'm willing to share my efforts so far to see what's what, so if anyone wants to PM me, please do but help!!!!! Be very much appreciated folks!!
Cheers in advance
Chris
Hi all - new poster here and I think this where I'm supposed to be looking, as I have a query regarding effects (lights) files (long post alert folks!).
Let me state, from the start, that I am a newbie to this so explanations full of jargon are more than likely to pass me by or be replied with "I don't understand!!" or simply "Eh..?" Sorry!! However, here goes...
I've been dabbling with simple custom scenery for FSX (Gold/Acceleration edition) for a short while, using GMax. I have, more or less, got a handle on relatively simple buildings/other structures. As many other have found, I've also started to use Model Converter X and Library Creator XML to produce my own scenery object libraries. For placement I use Instant Scenery 3.
For a while now, I've been itching to have a crack at street lights (with a view to adding custom light effects elsewhere but that matters not for now), so I've had a bash at a simple street light. After a lot of reading around online, the SDK literature, the various Wikis and so on, I'm really none the wiser. There seems to be a lot of conflicting advice, advice aimed at top end experts, which mean nothing, or threads which simply die off. Despite this, I managed to extract some bits I understood and that includes the Attach Tool in Gmax. After a couple of failed starts, I managed to get a light effect to stick to lamp post, save/export as an MDL file. I used Model Converter to take care of the BMP to DDS conversion and then create a library with Library Creator XML. After doing the necessaries of registering the library in FSX by adding it to the active scenery library list, IS3 duly recognises it and lo-and-behold, I can drop an illuminated street light into my scenery and it's still lit with a nice glow around it!! Startled by its (and my own) brilliance (and with due deference to multitude of FS forums I've read and somehow digested), I even braved it, did a little more reading and managed to alter the colour, so now it's classic British street light sodium orange (almost)!
These are just the working prototypes, so are a little raggy round the edges. The red box is due to IS3 being active.
So far so good. Only issue is, it's on all day! So to start with, I'd like to turn the thing off during daylight hours. So far, I understand that I need, somewhere to insert the Day=0,Night=1 effectParams command BUT where? This is where things come unstuck and the web advice becomes confused or just complicated.
I have no idea HOW to create an XML file which is apparently needed, let alone where I would keep it and then what to do with it! It seems I might need to create a control file? I have found these in the FSX/Effects folder (cntrl_*.fx but having looked at one, can;t fathom how it relates to an XML file or the fx file I want to control)I copied the stock FSX effect I wanted, adjusted the light colour, renamed it, placed it BACK into the FSX Effects folder and so on - that much works fine. However, I can't see where the XML files which controls these are kept and I can't discover, in a simple way, how to translate the XML file into an effect file I can use to attach to models in GMax. Having seen examples of XML files, it seems I have to specify lat/long among other things. This isn't what I want to do - is it necessary? All I need is a simple way of telling a light effect when it needs to be 'illuminated' that's all and an effect which I can attach to a Gmax scenery MDL, so I can, as stated, create my own various kinds of lamp post/street lights, create a library of them and drop into FSX as and where necessary.
I've discovered that although, via the Gmax Attach Tool, there is a box add effect parameters, that doesn't seem to work. I've tried adding DAY=0,NIGHT=1 in upper and lower case writing, adding them individually (just DAY or just NIGHT) and even DAY=YES etc. Adding " " quotations marks certainly doesn't work - GMax flags an error message stating the " " as code it can't recognise. I also looked at the Effects Tool itself in FSX and again, there are no DAY/NIGHT options there, so it's pointless, as some suggest, making my own effect there (I really wouldn't know where to start anyway).
In advance of any likely replies - HELP!!!! IT's driving me round the bend!! I'm willing to share my efforts so far to see what's what, so if anyone wants to PM me, please do but help!!!!! Be very much appreciated folks!!
Cheers in advance
Chris
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